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Course, academic year 2024/2025
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Introduction to Formal Linguistics - NPFL006
Title: Úvod do formální lingvistiky
Guaranteed by: Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics (32-UFAL)
Faculty: Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Actual: from 2022
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 3
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unlimited
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: taught
Language: English, Czech
Teaching methods: full-time
Additional information: http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/courses/npfl006
Guarantor: Mgr. Magda Ševčíková, Ph.D.
Teacher(s): Mgr. Magda Ševčíková, Ph.D.
Class: Informatika Mgr. - Matematická lingvistika
Classification: Informatics > Computer and Formal Linguistics
Annotation -
The course explains the principles of the formal description of natural languages and presents selected formal- linguistic approaches. The focus in on the description of sentence structure. After an introductory discussion of formalization of linguistic phenomena, the course compares selected dependency-based approaches (Functional Generative Description, Meaning-Text Theory, etc.) with generative approaches (e.g. Distributed Morphology) and other frameworks (Frame Semantics, Construction Grammar, etc.). Related treebanks and other data sources (FrameNet, etc.) are presented too.
Last update: Mírovský Jiří, RNDr., Ph.D. (04.05.2022)
Course completion requirements -

Course completion requirements:

1. Successful completion of 4 homework assignments

2. Attendance and participation in the class

3. Final exam: an in-class test at the end of the term

Last update: Ševčíková Magda, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.05.2022)
Literature -

Allan, K.: The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Oxford University Press 2013.

Chomsky, N.: Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht 1981.

Chomsky, N.: Syntactic Structures. The Hague 1957.

Chomsky, N.: The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass. 1995.

Fillmore, C. J.: The Case for Case. In Bach and Harms (eds.): Universals in Linguistic Theory. New York 1968, pp. 1–88.

Fillmore, C. J.: The Mechanisms of ‘Construction Grammar’. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society 14, 1988, pp. 35–55.

Hajič J., Hajičová E., Mikulová M., Mírovský J.: Prague Dependency Treebank. In N. Ide & J. Pustejovsky (eds.): Handbook of Linguistic Annotation. Dordrecht 2017, pp. 555–594.

Kahane, S.: The Meaning-Text Theory. In Dependency and Valency. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Vol. 1. Berlin 2003, pp. 546–570.

Luelsdorff, P. A. (ed.): The Prague School of Structural and Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1994.

Matthews, P. H.: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford 2007.

Robins, R. H.: A short history of linguistics. Longman 1984.

Saussure, F. de: Course in General Linguistics. Transl. by R. Harris. London 1983.

Seuren, P.: Western Linguistics: An Historical Introduction. Wiley 1998.

Sgall, P., Hajičová, E., Panevová, J.: The Meaning of the Sentence in Its Semantic and Pragmatic Aspects. Dordrecht/Prague 1986.

Last update: Ševčíková Magda, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.05.2022)
Requirements to the exam -

Final exam: an in-class test at the end of the term covers topics addressed in the lectures.

Last update: Ševčíková Magda, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.05.2022)
Syllabus -

1. Formal description of natural languages – what are we up to?

2. Overview of frameworks to be discussed

Formalization of linguistic features - focus on syntax:

  • Syntactic trees, dependency vs. constituency
  • Form vs meaning of the sentence
  • Levels in the sentence description: surface-syntactic vs deep-syntactic representation
  • Relationships between surface and depth: synonymy, homonymy, deletions -
  • Verb as the core of the sentence structure; valency
  • Referencing within the sentence and beyond, coreference
  • Information structure of the sentence

3. Functional Generative Description

  • Multi-level approach to language
  • Valency: arguments vs. adjuncts, valency frame
  • Surface-syntactic and deep-syntactic trees, non-dependency relations

4. Paninian framework

  • Dependency-based approach
  • Karaka relations

5. Meaning-Text Theory

  • Levels of language system description
  • Meaning-to-text approach
  • Lexical functions: syntagmatic vs paradigmatic

6. Generative Linguistics – The Chomskyan approach

  • Language description in the generative perspective: competence vs performance, language faculty
  • Generation of sentences, transformations
  • Lexicalist Hypothesis, Government & Binding, Minimalism

7. Distributed Morphology

  • A unified approach to syntax and morphology
  • Vocabulary items, Encyclopedia, Late Insertion, Underspecification, etc.

8. Case Grammar & Frame Semantics (Charles Fillmore)

  • Case Grammar
  • Frame Semantics
  • FrameNet database

9. Construction Grammar

  • Construction as a form-meaning pairing
  • Types of constructions
  • Constructions as means for a full-fledged description of language

10. Some more approaches

  • Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR)
  • Universal Conceptual Cognitive Annotation (UCCA), etc.
Last update: Ševčíková Magda, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.05.2022)
 
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